Report of the President’s Academic Colleague to the University Senate

Meeting of Academic Colleagues

Council of Ontario Universities

April 20, 2006

a). Meeting of the Academic Colleagues

The Academic Colleagues met in the morning of Thursday, April 20, 2006. The agenda consisted of an update on COU issues, an update on the activities of those COU committees and task forces on which Colleagues sit, a discussion of a draft Academic Colleagues’ working paper on research chairs in Ontario universities, and a presentation on the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act.

Jamie Mackay (COU) provided an update on a number of COU issues including graduate growth funding, accessibility funding, the new tuition fee policy, the Freedom on Information and Protection of Privacy Act, the Quality Improvement Fund, OUAC undergraduate application statistics for 2006-2007, and the First Generation Bursary.

There were two reports presented by Colleague members on COU committee activities. Firstly, Paul Thompson (Toronto) reported on the March 28, 2006 meeting of the COU Standing Committee on Relationships with Other Postsecondary Institutions. In particular, he reported that (i) a draft letter was being prepared for Deputy Minister Steenkamp outlining a possible approach for assessing admissions eligibility of students with applied degrees from colleges of applied arts and technology into university second-entry or graduate programs and (ii) the fact sheet on universities and colleges in Ontario would be updated. Secondly, Marilyn Rose (Brock) reported on the first meeting of the COU Task Force on Quality Measurements held earlier in the morning (of April 20, 2006). Part of the mandate of this task force is to contribute to the development and use of appropriate measures of quality for postsecondary education at the university level. The task force discussed two surveys conducted and published by Maclean’s magazine (namely, the university ranking survey and the graduate survey), and whether or not Ontario’s universities should continue participating in these surveys.

Antoni Lewkowicz (Ottawa) and Paul Schellenberg (Waterloo) led a discussion on the penultimate draft of their working paper, Research Chairs: A Systematic Change in Ontario’s Universities. The paper prompted considerable discussion among Colleagues and suggestions for further revision; the final paper is to be presented at the May meeting of Council.

Lastly, Rafael Eskenazi (Senior Policy Advisor, Access and Privacy Office, Ministry of Government Services) delivered a presentation on the new Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act (FIPPA), which comes into force on June 10, 2006. At that time, Ontario’s publicly assisted universities must comply with provisions under the Act. Mr. Eskenazi’s presentation focused on how the new Act will impact the academic community. Record keeping and protecting the privacy of students’ personal information were among the key issues reviewed in detail.

b). Meeting of Council

The Council (Executive Heads and Academic Colleagues) met in the afternoon of April 20, 2006. The agenda comprised reports from the President, the Executive Heads’ Round Table, the Academic Colleagues, the COU Task Force on Quality Measurements, the AUCC, and the Ontario Commission on Interuniversity Athletics, and presentations from the Ontario University Registrars’ Association and the Ontario Universities Fair Task Force.

Ian Clark (COU President) presented an overview of recent and ongoing COU and government activities, including (i) a meeting of the Executive Heads with the new Deputy Minister of the MTCU (P. Steenkamp) on March 10th, (ii) discussions with the Government regarding the new tuition fee framework, and (iii) discussion of planned COU activities for 2006-07.

This was followed by a summary of the Executive Heads’ meeting of earlier in the day. Their discussions included: (i) a meeting of the Executive Heads with the new Deputy Minister, during which multi-year accountability agreements and the student access fund were discussed, (ii) the legal issues surrounding FIPPA, (iii) graduate growth funding, (iv) processes of student admission into universities, and (v) athletic scholarships.

Marilyn Rose (Brock) then reported on the Academic Colleagues’ meeting of earlier in the day (April 20) [see section (a) above for details].

Claire Morris (AUCC) reported on recent AUCC discussions with a number of federal government officials, so as to gain a better sense of the new government’s position of higher education and research. The Board of the AUCC agreed that is an urgent need for universities in Canada to adopt a more coordinated strategy (aimed at federal politicians) in advocating the importance of universities and university education for the country.

D. Atkinson (Carleton) reported on the Ontario Commission on Interuniversity Athletics and the issue of offering athletic scholarships to first-year student athletes, which was discussed by the Executive Heads earlier in the day (April 20). The vote of whether Ontario’s publicly assisted universities should offer financial awards to entering student athletes with overall averages of 80% and above will be taken at the Annual General Meeting of Ontario University Athletics (OUA) on May 10, 2006.

D. Naylor (Toronto) reported on the Task Force on Quality Measurement. In the context of the FIPPA, caution should be exerted by universities in the kinds of data used for the metrics in the multi-year accountability agreements with the government.

Lastly, there were reports from the Ontario University Registrars’ Association (C. Sheridan, Brock) and the Ontario University Fair Task Force (Liam Mitchell, Toronto)

Jean-Guy Godin

Academic Colleague

April 30, 2006

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